1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer stored in a casing to print on paper and cut the paper after its printing, and a commodity information processing apparatus equipped with the printer.
2. Discussion of the Background
Conventionally, there has been adopted a printer in which a roll of paper as is used as a medium to be printed, and, after printing, the paper is cut off at an arbitrary position.
As an example of such a printer, there is a receipt printer which is incorporated in a commodity information processing apparatus such as a POS (Point Of Sales) terminal and an ECR (Electric Cash Register) and the like, and the printer issues a receipt on which specific data of transaction are printed to make clear details of the transaction by the sales-register processing.
The receipt is issued in accordance with details of transaction. Generally, therefore, the receipt differs in length every time it is issued. In the receipt printer, therefore, the paper is cut by a cutter section as required after printing of specific data, thereby enabling the use of a required length of paper without waste.
The conventional receipt printer stated above will be explained by referring to FIG. 13. A receipt printer 100 is of such a construction that, on a frame 108, are mounted a paper housing section 101 for housing and holding paper, a printing section 104 having a platen 102 which is driven to rotate and a printhead 103 located oppositely to the platen 102, and a rotary cutter 107 which is a cutting section having a stationary blade 105 and a movable blade 106 disposed oppositely to the stationary blade 105 and driven to rotate while sliding its cutting edge section in relation to that of the stationary blade 105.
The frame 108 is constructed such that a turning frame 110 is rotatably connected with respect to a main body frame 109 by a support shaft 111 arranged at the rear end of the printer.
Then, the receipt printer 100 is housed in the casing of the commodity information processing apparatus and used.
In the receipt printer 100 stated above, when printing is performed, first an opening/closing cover arranged at the casing of the commodity information processing apparatus is opened. Subsequently, the turning frame 110 is turned in a direction in which the turing frame 110 moves away from the main body frame 109, whereby the frame 108 is made open. Subsequently, a platen 102 is moved away from the printhead 103, and the stationary blade 105 is moved away from the fixed blade 106.
In this state, the paper 112 is housed in the paper housing section 101, the paper 112 is drawn out to pass over the main body frame 109, and in this state the turning frame 110 is turned in a direction in which it approaches to the main body frame 109. Then, the frame 108 is closed to cause the paper to be held between the platen 102 and the printhead 103 and between the stationary blade 105 and the movable blade 106.
After this state, the opening/closing cover arranged at the casing of the commodity information processing apparatus is closed. Then, a setting of the paper 112 to the receipt printer 100 is carried out.
In this way, the platen 102 is rotated and driven under a state in which the paper 112 is set, the paper 112 held by the paper housing section 101 is drawn out and transferred, some specific data are printed on the paper 112 by the printhead 103 during its transferring stage and the paper 112 after printed is cut by a rotary cutter 107, whereby a receipt is issued.
In this case, when the cutting operation of the rotary cutter 107 is carried out, a force in a direction moving away from the main body frame 109 may act on the turning frame 110. Although not shown in FIG. 13, the receipt printer 100 is provided with a turning operation restricting structure (not shown) for restricting a turning of the turning frame 110 under influence of this force.
In this receipt printer 100, the turning frame 110 is turned with respect to the main body frame 109 to enable the platen 102 and the printhead 103 to be moved away from each other and the stationary blade 105 and the movable blade 106 to be moved away from each other, so that a setting of the paper 12 and clearing of jam of the paper 112 between the platen 102 and the printhead 103 and between the stationary blade 105 and the movable blade 106 can be easily carried out.
However, in the case of such a receipt printer 100 as described above, the turning frame 110 having such a size ranging from the support shaft 111 installed at the rear end of the receipt printer 100 to the rotary cutter 107 arranged at the front end of the receipt printer 100 must be installed, whereby a weight of the receipt printer 100 is increased.